The Daily Populous Thursday February 12nd, 2026 morning edition
Authored by dexerto.com and submitted by Beautiful_Bee4090

A 12-year-old from Dallas has built a nuclear fusion machine and is seeking recognition from Guinness World Records as the youngest person ever to do so.

Aiden McMillan’s device drew attention after he demonstrated it to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, showing how he assembled the machine himself to achieve nuclear fusion.

The achievement places him in line to challenge the Guinness World Record currently held by Jackson Oswalt, who achieved fusion in 2018 hours before turning 13 and was later recognized by Guinness as the youngest person to do so.

Speaking to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, McMillan said he became interested in nuclear fusion after reading about it when he was younger and decided he wanted to try building his own machine.

He also said the project raised concerns at home. “There were some alarm bells with my mom, yes, she was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, take a step back, tell me exactly what could go wrong, and how it could go wrong and make sure it doesn’t go wrong,’” he said.

NBC DFW McMillan spent four years creating the machine.

The device he constructed is based on a fusor, which uses electric fields to heat and confine plasma. While such machines do not generate usable energy, successfully operating one remains a significant engineering challenge.

Guinness World Records has not yet confirmed whether McMillan’s achievement will officially be recognized.

CrysFreeze on February 11st, 2026 at 18:48 UTC »

These articles come out every year, why?

svideo on February 11st, 2026 at 16:53 UTC »

He built a Farnsworth fusor, a common lab experiment for undergrads. No energy gain and not really useful but a fun thing to build.

Or to watch your dad build, whichever this happens to be.

Roflkopt3r on February 11st, 2026 at 16:52 UTC »

Building nuclear fusion machines that run with a net electricity loss is fairly trivial. There is a whole hobby scene of building fusors like this.

It's a cool project, but more of a matter of 'do you care enough to read through the available guides and stick with the project for a couple weeks'-thing. It's an accomplishment one can be proud of, but barely newsworthy even for a 12 yr old. Like, I would have be amazed if someone at my school had done it, but more on the level of local news.